Mystery and homemade lasagna are on the menu for a dinner theater presentation next month by theater students at Emporia High School.
The play, “Trouble at the Talent Show,” will be performed Oct. 2 and 3 in the basement of the First United Methodist Church, Ninth Avenue and Merchant Street.
The play is one of several events and activities under way by thespians at EHS to earn money for educational and enrichment trips for the students next spring.
Parents of theater students will prepare the meal — lasagna, garlic bread, cheese cake, tea and water — with serving and the play scheduled to begin at 6:15 p.m. The cost will be $12 per person and doors will open at 6 p.m.
Amanda Stice, director of theater and a teacher at EHS, described the plot of the play.
“It is an all-school talent show which includes the maintenance guys and the lunch ladies,” she said, “and somebody is paralyzed by ‘Formula X.’ ... The mystery is to figure out who done it and why.”
A “clue hunt” will be held during dessert for audience members who want to participate, she said.
Seating for 150 will be available both nights.
Stice said a total of 21 students are trying to earn money for a state conference or to help defray the $1,600 per-person cost of next semester’s New York trip. They will be accompanied to New York by Stice and her husband, plus five parents of students.
The trip will be during spring break, March 15 through 19, and Stice expects the students to pack a lot of learning into their five-day stay as part of the Pro Musica trip
“It is a wonderfully educational trip,” Stice said. “This is really the only opportunity they will have to do this. $1,600 is a lot of money, but not for what they get to do. It’s phenomenal. It’s a totally enrichment, educational experience for them.”
The cost includes air fare, hotel, breakfast each day, three other meals, two theater master classes with theater professionals, three tickets to Broadway shows, a Harlem gospel tour and tours of Ellis and Liberty islands, Carnegie Hall and a Broadway costume shop.
Tulips and burritos
Students also have other fundraisers underway or in the planning stages.
They now are selling Dutch Mill tulips at $1 each through the fall planting season, and are taking orders for homemade burritos made from smoked pulled pork, with refried beans, homemade salsa and cheese.
Students also are preparing for their fall production, “Diary of Anne Frank,” which will be presented Nov. 12 and 14.
Some plan to use their share of the money raised to attend the state conference in January in Wichita.
“The conference is an awesome opportunity for students,” Stice said. “There are tons of colleges there. ... There’s literally hundreds of workshops they can go to and then there are a few competitions.”
Four main stage productions will be presented, and Stice expects her students will enter the lobby display competition, for which they have won first prize in five of the past six years.
The lobby display does not tout productions done by the EHS troupers, but is evidence of the work they do on behalf of the Emporia area.
“It’s meant to show your group’s community service,” she explained. “You have to do community service.”
Stice makes community service a part of the routine for all of her students, and requires it for them to earn a letter from her department. As part of their extracurricular work, they also are planning for a production of “Annie,” a musical that will be performed in conjunction with a Girl Scout workshop.
Students in Spartan Educational Theater (SET) also are teaming up with the Emporia Fire Department for a fire-prevention event on Oct. 7 at the Lyon County Fairgrounds. SET members will perform skits relating to the topic.
They are scheduled to perform in local schools, doing skits oriented toward preventing drug use during Red Ribbon Week, in cooperation with Emporians for Safe and Drug Free Schools.
Students also have committed to take part in the downtown clean-up project and have a “Trick or Treat So Kids Can Eat” event to bring in canned food and other non-perishable edibles for people in need.
The latter will be in Soden’s Grove from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 6. Rides on the miniature train will be available, as will face-painting and other activities. The cost will be two cans of food or non-perishable items per person.
“They’ve been working so hard,” Stice said, “and you can only sell so many things.”
Information about the programs and fundraising projects may be had by calling Stice at the high school, 341-2365.
People who want to donate may make checks payable to EHS Theater Boosters.